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Media extra points II: Looking back, spinning forward

==Another sincere reminder about Sunday’s ESPN “Outside The Lines” piece on the 30th anniversary of the death of Lyman Bostock, (linked here) and please read this story (linked here) by ESPN’s Jeff Pearlman, which masterfully covers everything about the former Angel and San Fernando Valley State outfielder’s life you’d ever want to know.

(And by the way, the NFL says that the CBS doubleheader last week that featured — to most of the country — New England vs. the New York Jets was viewed by 25.4 million, making it the most-watched NFL game in September on a Sunday since 1991. In L.A., we saw San Diego-Denver in that window.)
And the San Diego Union Tribune has Tony Kornheiser’s reaction to the Chargers’ latest loss (linked here).

==ESPN’s really-big-deal coverage of the final game at Yankee Stadium (leading into its coverage of the Orioles-Yankees game Sunday at 5 p.m.) will include a seven-hour pregame show. ESPN2 has the game’s opening ceremony (7 p.m.) while ESPNEWS has the post-game stuff. The ESPN game telecast will begin with a special open with Yogi Berra talking about his memories, and scheduled to appear in the booth are (aside from Berra and Whitey Ford together), are Billy Crystal, and former Negro League Rookie of the Year (1940) Mahlon Duckett. ESPN will re-air a documentary, “Yankee Stadium: Baseball’s Cathedral” at noon and ESPN Classic has 20 hours of programming featuring events at Yankee Stadium, including the 1977 World Series Game 6 (Reggie Jackson’s three homers against the Dodgers), the George Brett pine-tar game, Jim Abbott’s and Dave Righetti’s no-hitters, David Wells’ and David Cone’s perfect games, the 2003 ALCS Game 7 against Boston (Aaron Boone’s pinch-hit homer in the 11th), the 1936 Max Schmeling vs. Max Baer fight and, the two Joe Louis vs. Max Schmeling fights.

==USC linebackers Brian Cushing and Rey Maualuga are scheduled to appear on the FSN West “College Football Saturday Kick-off” show (Saturday, 11:30 a.m.), leading into the UCLA-Arizona coverage.

==CBS’ Boomer Esiason, a former Cincinnati Bengals QB, has a sit-down with another Bengals singal caller, Carson Palmer, to air on Sunday’s NFL pregame show (9 a.m.)

==Sports Illustrated Kids — it still exists? — is using its October issue to focus on video games for the first time. “The video game issue gave us a unique opportunity both editorially and for our gaming advertisers,” said Vice President of Ad Sales and Marketing Scott Hendrickson. “Our readers are huge video game fans and this platform provides our readers with the lifestyle content they continue to ask for.”
The idea for the October issue, according to the press release, stemmed from Sports Illustrated Kids finding that readers have “fully adopted the next gen systems and are spending on average $77/month on videogames.” Folow the money …

==TBS has (thank goodness) locked in its broadcasting pairings for the MLB playoffs, which it starts broadcasting Oct. 1 with exclusive coverage of both division series and the AL Championship Series. Chip Caray, Dick Stockton, Don Orsillo (of the Boston Red Sox) and Brian Anderson (of the Milwaukee Brewers) will do play-by-play.
(Deep yawn, as expected).Ron Darling, Buck Martinez, Tony Gwynn and Joe Simpson will be the analysts, along with John Smoltz and Harold Reynolds.
(That’s the best they can do?)
Smoltz, still pitching for the Braves while he’s been out injured, did some Atlanta games on the local cable outlet and was in the studio last season. He holds major league records with 15 victories and 194 strikeouts in the postseason.
So what if Smoltz ends up covering a game that involves the Dodgers — and his friend, Greg Maddux.
“It would be very interesting,” Smoltz told the Associated Press. “I would feel like I’d be adequate to talk about him.”
In the studio: Ernie Johnson, Cal Ripken, Dennis Eckersley and Curtis Granderson. For the ALCS, Caray will work with Darling and Martinez. TBS will also offer alternate camera angles on its dedicated website (www.mlb.com/tbshotcorner) focused on the dugout, pitcher and batters.
By the way, if the Dodgers are in the playoffs, expect Vin Scully to do the radio call on KABC-AM (790). For the Angels, Rory Markas and Terry Smith will do the radio broadcasts on KLAA-AM (830), but KSPN-AM (710) will also air the syndicated national feed.

==Versus says it will carry the Atlanta Football Classic on Saturday, Sept, 27, at 1 p.m. — the first time it has had a national TV audience. It matches up Tennessee State and Florida A&M from the Georgia Dome.
That’s the same day that the Coliseum hosts the third annual Angel City Football Classic, this year between Prairie View A&M and Morehouse, to promote more Historically Black College and Universities. It is expected to draw 80,000 and will be carried by FSN Prime Ticket at 2 p.m.

==CBS announced a long-term deal with Navy to do its home college football games, basketball games and Olympic sports. CBS’ contract will include the Navy-Notre Dame football game through 2016. CBS College Sports Network extended its contract through 2017-18.

**AND FINALLY:

==Looking for some good, unpurchased Beijing Olympics junk that NBC still has in its stock room but can’t figure out how to unload?
Neither are we. But if you get the urge to purchase some early holiday gifts, keep an eye on the NBC store site (linked here), which will probably get even more desperate as the weeks go by and still has a bunch of sized M cherry red polo shirts with the NBC Olympic logo on it.
Credit this find to (linked here).

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